Hyderabad: The ruling TRS in Telangana, which voted against the amendment to citizenship law in Parliament, on Friday said the party government would take a decision on the NRC and NPR after due deliberations in the state cabinet.
We are extremely clear on the stand on the issue of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA). There is no big confusion in it. Whatever we have said on the floor of the House, we stand by that. There is no change in that," TRS working president KT Rama Rao told reporters here.
"With respect to the National Register of Citizens, that is a decision of the government... CAA, NPR (National Population Register), NRC, you are linking them and using them interchangeably as you wish, all these acronyms. What we are saying is, these are important issues that need to be discussed in the government, he said.
He said these were not decisions that can be announced by an individual or a party. "We have to sit together as a government, there is a cabinet, there is a chief minister, there are several constituents that need to be sounded off, issues that needed to be addressed...Rama Rao, son of Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, recalled that party MPs had already made it clear in Parliament during the debate on Citizenship Amendment Bill that TRS was opposed to the exclusion of Muslims.
The same day, we had also said, remove that word and include Muslims, we will vote in favour of the bill, he said adding when the government made it clear it would not concede their demand, the TRS members voted against the bill.
"So, I don't think there is anything new to be said now, he said.
TRS had taken decisions on bills in parliament after due deliberations within the party, keeping in mind the interests of India and Telangana, and had also supported the NDA government on issues like Article 370, he said.
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TRS parliamentary party chairman K Keshav Rao, also present at the media interaction, said details of NPR were not yet available and there were some doubts over the centre's announcement on it.
TRS would oppose it if the doubts turned out to be true or else go with the NPR, he said.